“What!” Sagacia said, slapping down her knitting. Murzik was startled.

“I’m trying to read Vasalisa’s letters,” Simplia said. “This is a hard question, this one from Speculating in Spearfish,” she explained, “And it takes all my concentration just to understand what people are saying, and you’re over there just mumbling away!”

“Well, sort of why,” Sagacia explained. She put her knitting aside and scooted to the end of the chesterfield, near her friend. “I keep waiting for sometime when my brain will hold all that stuff together,” she said. “I’ll try again right now. With you. Read to me!”

I hope Vasilisa has some wisdom to share, and some antidotes for the damage being done to our stories and our children. Stories can and will change with time and tellings, but we are the poorer when the heart is cut out of them for the sake of a more shocking, mainstream, funny, etc etc tale.

At the same time, as an ardent parodist whose favorite written and recorded work is comprised of fractured fairy tales, I am “hoist by my own petard.” (Whatever the heck a petard is…) There’s this enigma and I’m caught on the horns of it.

“I see her point,” Sagacia said. “But the truth is, parody and fracturing only work when people know the originals, so that seems like all the more reason to present, preserve, and perpetuate them in their truest and most complete forms.”

“Okay; this one is from Csenge Zalka.” Simplia said, snapping up another letter.

I don’t think it’s too late. It definitely shows, and it’s heck of a huge effort, but I think people at any age are receptive to storytelling, even if they had not been exposed to it before. You mentioned video games, comics and movies. They are definitely not the same as face-to-face storytelling, HOWEVER they do speak to people’s eternal need for story. They crave stories, they seek them out, they play with them, and they are passionate about them. While it is not oral tradition, it is a good starting point. It is a connection between the things they grew up with, and what we do as storytellers. If you find the stories that connect to that point of entry, it is actually easier to draw them into the world of storytelling than one would think.I don’t think it’s a lost cause. I think it’s a very worthy quest.

Peripheral to your question, but there is a far larger problem buried within that I think worth noting: the lack of fairy tales and fairy tale knowledge is only part of the growing loss of a common culture of any kind outside of the largely television-driven popular one. References to mythology, legends, art, the “classics” of literature, all increasingly lack resonance for much of the modern audience.

Even when what was once common culture is translated into popular culture forms, it is not always for the better. How many people today, for example, realize that Peter Pan is an essentially tragic figure? The story of a boy who cannot grow up and is fully aware, deep within himself, of what he has lost as a consequence is replaced by the more superficial story of a boy who, because he remains a child, always gets to go on carefree adventures.

“He’s right, you know! It’s a phenomenon larger than just fairy tales, but the example he gave is a perfect fairy tale example. What if we went tale by tale and considered the common mis-remembers, mis-translations, misapplications of fairy tale wisdom in popular culture?”

“That’s one way to approach the quest,” Simplia said, “Conquering one fairy tale misunderstanding at a time until we reach the shining truth at last.”

“Like Rapunzel, for starters,” Sagacia began. “Mostly, people remember the long hair or identify with being “kept in a tower” by a parent, but how many remember that lonely, pregnant teenage girl who lost the only home she ever knew and then had to find her own way in the world. How many remember her faithfulness to her beloved? And his faithfulness to her? It’s a story about losing and regaining family. That is what is so important in the original, whole tale!”

“Yeah! It’s just that that’s not as dazzling as long hair and towers,” Simplia asserted.

“Exactly! I can see we’re going to need some help from our magical friends to work through this one,” said Sagacia, leaping up from the chesterfield. “Come on, let’s go post this question at the Fairy Tale Lobby and see if anyone can help us with other examples.”

Simplia gathered up the letters and fell in behind Sagacia, then out the door they tripped.

And when the door slammed, who should leap up onto the chesterfield and circle Sagacia’s half-knit garment but Murzik! What good is a hank of wool without a few cat hairs? he thought as he nestled himself in.

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About mary grace ketner

My lawyer tells me I should not put the words "Fairy Tale Lobbyist" on my business cards but rather "Representative" and "National Fairy Tale Association." But I'm not, and there isn't one. Even so, I don't think I'm going it alone.

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4 thoughts on “k1, *p2tog, k2, rep from *”

I suppose sometimes the misunderstandings of fairy tales stem from the need to have an easily applicable lesson for the world’s pop culture-tuned children. For example, the way popular culture remembers “The Frog Prince”, the princess kisses the frog and he turns back into a prince. From there, it’s easy to derive lessons about looking beyond appearances and the power of love to overcome hardships. However, in that story’s most likely source “The Frog-King, or Iron Henry” from Grimm, the frog annoys the princess so much that she picks him up and throws him at a wall. Once the frog slides down to the floor, he changes into a prince. It’s a little harder to draw from that one. There is still the idea that appearances are deceiving, but the story does not suggest any need to look beyond them. Perhaps the frog was in need of a good humbling and humility was the theme. Or maybe it’s just best left as a reminder that fairy tales, like real life, aren’t always easy to figure out.

I’d also like to point out the misconceptions with Pinocchio. In the original Geppetto’s kind of a hothead, Pinocchio’s a foolish troublemaker, the cricket is a pedant who gets killed in a fit of Pinocchio’s rage, and over all the father-son relationship between Pinocchio and Geppetto is more complex than what you’d expect from the cartoons. But I don’t think Pinocchio technically counts as a fairy tale.

Back in 1812, the Grimm Brothers issued their first edition of fairy tales, in part to preserve the German national tradition of storytelling. They were not the first to collect fairy tales, but they served as a model to other collectors in other countries through the rest of the 19th century. The general fear that pervaded these collections’ introductions was that these tales might otherwise be lost if not written down.

For two centuries the fairy tale has survived on the fringes of social consciousness, upheld by its staunch supporters. Perhaps the fairy tales has always been on the fringes, with the occasional rise to popularity, such as when Charles Perrault introduced them to the French court, or when Hans Christian Andersen drew from them for his literary purposes, or when Walt Disney animated them to his profit.

I’ll suggest we call these stories fairy tales because the name reflects their ethereal nature, that they exist on the borderline between the real and the unreal, fluttering on delicate wings, staying aloft, so easily crushed, yet they endure.

Oh, my! Charles! That is indeed an enlightened and enlightening view! You’ve identified how their power is available to only the very few who who take on the quest–and complete it! I cherish this image, but I nonetheless reserve the right to whine about their diminishment in the present day and/or in any era.

IT HAPPENS EVERY MONTH!

Someone in distress over a Fairy Tale theme or problem writes for help from Vasilisa the Wise via her syndicated newspaper column. But Vasilisa--well, she's stuck in a little hut on chicken feet until she finishes picking out the dirt from poppy seeds, or at the widow’s house in town, spinning flax into linen to make a shirt for the czar, or she’s at a banquet making swans come out of her sleeve. She just can't attend to questions right now, so she enlists the aid of her two simpleton friends who feed the cat and collect her mail. They can’t really help, either. Not by themselves.

Fortunately, they know others who can! Magical friends like you, who care about fairy tales and storytelling, who have accumulated experience, observations, and ponderings to share, and who might take a moment to post a response to help a correspondent solve a conundrum.

On the magical third day of each month, Vasilisa's mail magically appears, the Simpletons open it (with permission), read the question and ask for help answering it. Then they gather responses, yours and others', and distribute them every week or so to inspire further thought. As if by magic, when the third of the next month rolls in, so does another question! Here’s what the Simpletons hope you’ll do: Read the question then (a) post your response as a comment on the blog itself, (b) reply to it on the Storytell Listserv, or (c) write in your answer on The Fairy Tale Lobby Facebook page.

The Fairy Tale Lobby is a "Discussion Group" of the National Storytelling Network, and this blog is both the way we discuss fairy tale topics and a means of preserving your wisdom. Regardless of whether or not you are a member of NSN, if you value fairy tales, if you defend them in the real world, if you advocate their greater use, if you occasionally even lobby on their behalf, you will feel right at home here.

Your hosts at the Fairy Tale Lobby, besides Simplia and Sagacia who carry out all the communications, fluff the pillows on the Chesterfield, brew the tea, butter the gate, and bake the crumpets, are Megan Hicks and Mary Grace Ketner. They are the ones who enjoy and appreciate your ideas insights most of all.

This month’s question:

Dear Vasilisa the Wise --

Are you really as good as all that? Are you really wise? Or just cagey? When you're wearing your Czarina hat, are you genuinely concerned about the well-being of your subjects? Or do you just want to pacifying them enough that they don't foment unrest? In your stories, as an innocent, you're too good to be true. I'm pretty unschooled in fairy tales, so I wonder if there are many stories about you as an woman married to the Czar.

Usually the people at the top of the heap are there either as innocuous place holders or as the source of the conflict that winds the story up. Bad rulers are deposed in fairy tales. Do their usurpers then become the next wave of bad rulers?

Right now, I could use a story about a good monarch. A wise queen. A generous rich man. An honest advisor to the king. Not just a placeholder in the story. Not just a cameo role. I'm looking for a prime mover. Help me out here, would you? I'm growing

Cynical in Cynghordy

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